The National Assembly has pleaded with the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors to ‘consider the situation in the country’ and call off the strike embarked upon two days ago.
The Chairman, House Committee on Healthcare Services, Dr. Tanko Sununu, made the appeal at the inauguration of a sensitisation campaign organised by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Abuja.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that NARD started a nationwide industrial action
on August 2 over welfare and other conditions of service to members.
Sununu said, ‘I am calling on NARD to please look at the situation of the country and call off the strike.
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‘We do know that there have been issues raised and we are working hard to ensure that those issues are resolved within the shortest possible time. However, we need their cooperation.
‘Luckily for us, and as it was even observed in their communique, the National Assembly made provision for many allowances for NARD with residency training fund inclusive.’
He expressed the hope that the assembly would get the cooperation of everybody, including the executive arm of government, to fast track the calling off of the strike.
The chairman said that the strike was not something that anybody would want because anybody could fall sick and be a victim.
‘We do hope that the hardship that we have suffered will be short-lived because we will agree and
reach a conclusion that will help this country,‘ he added.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, also appealed to the doctors to return to work.
Oloriegbe explained that it was important for Nigerians to access healthcare from qualified and competent doctors in the nation’s public hospitals.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
